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Get Started with NetBeans Platform 6.0

In Tim's Selection Tutorials Ported to 6.0, I announced that the 4-part selection series, by Tim Boudreau, is available for 6.0. However, before you follow those tutorials, you probably need to take some orientating steps through the NetBeans Platform tools and some of the main APIs. Now, the main NetBeans Platform tutorials are also available for 6.0:

The samples on which the above tutorials are based were written by some of the undisputed heros of the NetBeans Platform—Jaroslav Tulach wrote the HTML Editor, Tim Boudreau the Paint Application, and Rich Unger the Feed Reader. So, you are in good hands! Now these samples can also be built in 6.0, if you use the tutorials above. Best to follow them in the above sequence, because they increase in complexity. The differences between 5.5 and 6.0, in relation to these tutorials, is minor. However, the screenshots have been fixed (many places where there are small u.i. tweaks in 6.0) and, especially in the case of the Feed Reader tutorial, a lot of explanatory text has been added and some restructuring has been done.

All three of the above are in some kind of 'draft' state, although they should definitely provide the promised result (i.e., the code should be solid). The titles might change by the time 6.0 is released, but the URL to the tutorials should remain the same. Further explanatory texts need to be added, especially in the Feed Reader tutorial. Any comments are welcome, use the Feedback links at the end of each of the tutorials.

I'm glad to see that my old tutorial is still useful. Clearly someone (I'm guessing you) has been updating it. I'm consistently impressed at how much easier it gets to write something like FeedReader. The platform tools just keep getting better. BTW, see you soon in Prague! Can't wait to hang out with all the NB folks.

Great Book ! I worked with Tom Wheeler, Brad and Neil (of Boeing) on the MassTK Boeing Project in the early stages of the Netbeans 5.0 platform. And I am glad to see the recent review posted on the Netbeans site. Those guys worked HARD and really have a nice start on a suite of products to come. Back in those days, things were more difficult then. But with the API cleaned up and well documented, I feel that on my current project that my new work will be able to port with little or no effort at all. The module building tools are now more mature than ever before. I have even build a multi-view editor using the Netbeans Visual Library to actually plot the piping layout of a major gas company. Then using the subversion module, we can easily spot differences in the flat file and see them visually as well!

One question however...Can we get a tutorial that can show what is necessary to get a JNI application to run in the framework? I am using TeamDev's JExcel as a JNI wrapper for Microsoft's excel to keep the custom java application compatible with legacy data. It works great as a stand alone jar under a normal Netbeans projects. It will run under "normal" conditions within the Netbeans project environment and as well in a command window. But for whatever reasons ( I plead ignorance! ), after wrapping the project and adding an action - nothing works? Any suggestions?

In the long run, I would think that JNI bindings and how to use them properly will become more valuable within the Netbean's frameworks as well as the pure Java applications.

But back to the book...I hope you keep future releases coming as well! Great job!

Hi Rich, yes I've been changing that tutorial a lot. Breaking it down, especially the very long RssNode class, to be able to explain it better. I've also added lots of screenshots (makes this kind of tutorial friendlier to the eye and weary soul). Looking forward to seeing you in Prague!
<p>Hi Michael, thanks for your enthusiasm for the NetBeans Platform. I will look into your JNI question soon -- if you have any specific insights already, they would be good to have (geertjan DOT wielenga AT sun DOT com). I would love to have a screenshot of your piping layout visualizer! It would get pride of place in this blog, for all the world to see!

With respect to JNI, I have a working module suite that uses JNI at http://jdic-netbeans.dev.java.net
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It's just a simple JDIC wrapper, so the directory structure should be pretty clear as a guide.

About

Geertjan Wielenga (@geertjanw) is a Principal Product Manager in the Oracle Developer Tools group living & working in Amsterdam. He is a Java technology enthusiast, evangelist, trainer, speaker, and writer. He blogs here daily.

The focus of this blog is mostly on NetBeans (a development tool primarily for Java programmers), with an occasional reference to NetBeans, and sometimes diverging to topics relating to NetBeans. And then there are days when NetBeans is mentioned, just for a change.